New York, NY - The winners of the 25th Annual Lambda Literary Awards were announced last night in a sold-out gala ceremony hosted by comedienne Kate Clinton at The Great Hall at Cooper Union. Taking place just after BookExpo America, - the book publishing industry's largest annual gathering of booksellers, publishers, authors, and readers - the Lambda ceremony brought together almost 500 attendees, sponsors, and celebrities to celebrate excellence in LGBT literature and 25 years of the groundbreaking literary awards. Legendary performer Janis Ian took to the stage at the ceremony, and the VIP After-Party at the New Museum was hosted by super-hot DJ Honey Dijon making a quarter century of the "Lammys" a night to remember.
As "mistress" of ceremonies, Clinton, for the second consecutive year, treated the audience to her brand of topical, political comedy that The New York Times has called, "Quick-witted, clear-spoken ... a bizarrely logical, seemingly free-associating style of delivery..." Welcoming the members of the audience from out of town, she joked, "There's fringe on the podium. That's so gay. They thought of everything."
New York Times columnist and bestselling author Frank Bruni, in presenting the Board of Trustees Award for Excellence in Literature to Augusten Burroughs said of his work, "There are memoirs but then there are people who redefined them... He's not just a talented man, he's a freakishly talented one."
Later in the night a new milestone was achieved. "For the first time transgender people are accepting the award for transgender literature," said Imogen Binnie, in a commentary during the acceptance of the award for the winner of Transgender Nonfiction for the book Transfeminist Perspectives in and Beyond Transgender and Gender Studies.
Janis Ian performed a moving rendition of her evocative song At Seventeen garnering a standing ovation.
Cherrie Moraga, Chicana writer, feminist, activist, poet, essayist, and playwright, accepted Lambda Literary's Pioneer Award. International bestseller John Irving, a Lambda winner for In One Person, also received LLF's Bridge Builder Award introduced to him by Edmund White.
Finally, near the end of the ceremony, Randy Jones, original member of the Village People, took the stage to present the Lammy in Gay and Lesbian Erotica saying, "I am privileged to be in a place of such history and in front of an audience of such talent."
"I've never been more proud of our community of writers." said Tony Valenzuela, Lambda Literary Foundation Executive Director. "I can't wait to see what the next 25 years brings."
Once again, The Lammys raised the bar for glamour with its dazzling roster of presenters from the worlds of film, television, theatre, politics, religion, sex, and, of course, literature. Gracing the stage were: Ingrid Abrams, Children's Librarian, Brooklyn Public Library; Justin Vivian Bond, author and Tony-nominated cabaret performer; Frank Bruni, first openly gay Op-Ed columnist of The New York Times, and bestselling author; acclaimed young adult author Nick Burd; Jonathan Capehart, Washington Post columnist and MSNBC contributor; Stacey D'Erasmo, novelist and literary critic; David France, journalist and documentary film maker; Deborah Gregory, television producer and award-winning author; Nina Hartley, legendary adult film actress and feminist sex educator; Amber Hollilbaugh, activist and writer; Karla Jay, writer and professor; Randy Jones, pop star and original cowboy of Village People; James Lecesne, actor, writer and Academy Award winning short filmmaker; Deacon Maccubbin & Jim Bennett, founders of Lambda Rising Bookstore and of the Lambda Literary Foundation; Keith Price, stand-up comic and Sirius OUT Z radio personality; Peter Staley, AIDS and gay rights activist; Kim Stolz, fashion model, television personality, and financial executive at Citigroup; Edmund White, award-winning novelist and memorist; and Jacqueline Woodson, award-winning young adult author.
Ceremony Sponsors:
Benefactor Level: Ketel One Vodka, Patron Level: American Institute on Bisexuality, Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Barefoot Wines & Bubbly, Bold Strokes Books, Simon & Schuster; Mentor Level: Chronicle Books, Harper Perennial, The New York Times, Samhain Publishers: Friends Level: Bywater Books, Arsenal Pulp Press, Circlet Press, Fararr, Straus, and Giroux, Hachette Book Group, Riverdale/Magnus, Seal Press Gift Bag Level: ABRAMS, Galison, Topside Press.
25th Annual Lambda Literary Award Winners
Bisexual (2 winners; 1 fiction, 1 nonfiction)
In One Person, John Irving, Simon & Schuster
My Awesome Place: The Autobiography of Cheryl B, Cheryl Burke, Topside Signature
Gay General Fiction
Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club, Benjamin Alire Saenz, Cinco
Puntos Press
Gay Memoir/Biography
Fire in the Belly, Cynthia Carr, Bloomsbury
Gay Mystery
Lake on the Mountain: A Dan Sharp Mystery, Jeffrey Round, Dundurn
Gay Poetry
He Do the Gay Man in Different Voices, Stephen S. Mills, Sibling Rivalry Press
Gay Romance
Kamikaze Boys, Jay Bell, Jay Bell Books
Gay Erotica
The Facialist, Mykola Dementiuk, JMS Books
Lesbian General Fiction
The World We Found: A Novel, Thrity Umrigar, HarperCollins Publishers/Harper
Lesbian Memoir/Biography
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, Jeanette Winterson, Grove/Atlantic
Lesbian Mystery
Ill Will, J.M. Redmann, Bold Strokes Books
Lesbian Poetry
Sea and Fog, Etel Adnan, Nightboat Books
Lesbian Romance
Month of Sundays, Yolanda Wallace, Bold Strokes Books
Lesbian Erotica
The Harder She Comes: Butch/Femme Erotica, D.L. King, Cleis Press
LGBT Anthology
No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics, Justin Hall - Editor, Fantagraphics Books
LGBT Children's/Young Adult
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Benjamin Alire Saenz, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
LGBT Debut Fiction
The Summer We Got Free, Mia McKenzie, BGD Press
LGBT Drama
The Myopia and Other Plays by David Greenspan, Marc Robinson, University of Michigan Press
LGBT Nonfiction
Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas, Dale Carpenter, W. W. Norton & Company
LGBT Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror
Green Thumb, Tom Cardamone, Lethe Press
LGBT Studies
Performing Queer Latinidad: Dance, Sexuality, Politics, RamÃ"n H. Rivera-Servera, University of Michigan Press
Transgender Fiction
The Collection: Short Fiction From The Transgender Vanguard, Edited by Tom Léger and Riley MacLeod, Topside Press
Transgender Nonfiction
Transfeminist Perspectives in and beyond Transgender and Gender Studies, edited by Finn Enke, Temple University Press
Dr. James Duggins Mid-Career Novelist Prize
Nicola Griffith
Trebor Healey
Dr. Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Awards
Sassafras Lowrey
Carter Sickels
